(Chris Soto: It's nice to see some of these high school arms signing. It's worth noting that many of the lower draft pick signing bonus have not been revealed. The slot value of every draft pick past the 10th round is $100,000 so anything above that will count against the Mets pool. With so many high school arms drafted, the club is unlikely to sign most of the rest of them but still....ya never know. Doesn't hurt to take a shot at someone with your late round picks. A good buddy of mine IMG Academy LHP Logan Allen, was dead set on pitching for the University of South Carolina. The Red Sox drafted him in the 8th round and offered an overslot bonus of $750k and next thing I knew he was wearing #26 for the GCL Red Sox. Things change quickly folks.)Joe D. | Metsmerized Online-Since their 11-game winning streak in April, the Mets have gone 23-32. In that span they squandered a dozen excellent pitching performances that they should have won. The team has lost all semblance of the fundamentally sound team we saw in April, and players look lost at the plate either striking out or hitting lazy grounders and fly balls. The team was never good defensively, but lately its been exponentially worse. Despite all that, Mike Puma of the New York Post reports that organizational officials have insisted Terry Collins’ job as manager is not in any jeopardy. “Though Collins is unsigned beyond this season and would be an easy scapegoat, there is a “we’re all in it together” sense within the organization, according to a source, as the front office and manager work toward finding a solution to the team’s dreadful offensive production.”(Chris Soto: No decision is going to be made on Terry Collins until Sandy Alderson finds some way to give him some legitimate offensive reinforcements. Right now this team's lack of wins falls on Sandy, not TC. However, as we have said before, it is still too early for major trades to happen as we are still not even at the halfway point in the season. As the trading season continues to slowly creep towards us, we should start getting a better sense of who is actually available and the price tags attached to them. For now though, come on Mets....hold on for dear life and keep the Nationals as close as possible. ) Mike Vorkunov | NJ Advance Media-The Mets are suffering offensively, worn down by injuries and offering little production. Over the last week they've scored six runs in five games. While the Mets consider the trade market, their internal options are limited. "We've had everybody from Triple-A here," manager Terry Collins said. One possible option still untried at Triple-A is shortstop Matt Reynolds. He is hitting .280 this season in Triple-A, with a .750 OPS, and can play multiple positions. One talent evaluator who has recently seen Reynolds play believes he is better than some bench options the Mets have used this year like Danny Muno and Eric Campbell, and that Reynolds while not better than Dilson Herrera is more major-league ready right now. "He's good enough to come up," the evaluator said.

(Chris Soto: I am a tad bit perplexed that Reynolds has not been tried at 3B yet over the ineffective trio of Muno, Campbell, and Tejada. His BABIP finally normalized this season and yet he's still hitting a reasonable .280 AVG. He's also showing a ton of gap to gap power as he's racked up 21 doubles in only 68 games, Yea, he's not going to have many HRs...but that's not his hitting style. The club could use his hitting style at the MLB right about now.)Ben Berkon | The Beanball-With the New York Mets’ below-average offense (ranks 20th with a 7.2 fWAR) incapable of providing necessary run support, however, even the most dominant of pitching efforts haven’t consistently resulted in wins. The front office could better evaluate the extent of their offensive needs by calling up top prospect Michael Conforto now. If Conforto could produce at a league-average or slightly above-league average rate, it would rightfully force the Mets to platoon Curtis Granderson with Michael Cuddyer. Any success at the major-league level would also take some pressure off David Wright returning too soon. In the event Conforto is over-matched in the proposed month-long audition, then the Mets can simply demote the future stud to Triple-A – perhaps recalling him again in September. No harm done.

(Chris Soto: As the Mets continue to struggle and Conforto continues to crush minor league pitching, your going to continue to hear this type of narrative over and over again. We have seen a number of promotions from AA straight to the MLB this season across the league. Most recently Twins and MLB #1 prospect Byron Buxton made the jump. For Conforto, if he's crushing AA pitching, there isn't much sense in sending him to a hitting happy Pacific Coast League. Lets give him about 2-3 more weeks in AA and if he hasn't cooled off by then....idk how you CAN'T call him up.)

Same thing with Dom Smith. I know he is a glove at 1B. But with Duda there, would it hurt to let him play some games in OF? He was 2-3 versus a dominant Jose Fernandez in his rehab start in St Lucie. Maybe Smith will be ready for bigs a lot sooner than we anticipate. He is hitting .365 in his last 40 games, with 22 XBHs in that span. What if he continue this pace? He could be ready in 2016, without a position.

Listen, if the guys hitting .350 to .400 in Vegas can't hit .200 with the big league club how is a guy hitting a paltry .280 going to succeed? I mean it seems like with Vegas its literally impossible to tell who is a decent hitter because of all the mediocre guys hitting .350. Honestly I expect Reynolds would fail spectacularly at the MLB level at the moment. This is based purely on guys like Monell, Campbell, MDD, Kirk N, Brad Emaus etc etc etc who did actually hit in the minors not do well.

Sounds like your buddy made a smart decision by taking the money. $750k is life changing money, and even though I've heard stories about low wage minor leaguers I assume he still gets what he needs to pretty much live expenses free while he lives his dream in professional baseball.

I saw the stats on Reynolds on the road this year hitting like .230.........I assume mets have REALLY good reason for him being where he is.

I've known Logan since he was an 11 yr old playing here in Cooperstown at the Dreams Park and I was an employee in Baseball Operations. Its been awesome to see him grow, work hard, and excel at the sport he loves.

His mother is a wonderful woman and extremely smart so I'm sure that $750k is going to be managed very well. I was kind of hoping he was gonna get drafted by the Mets but without a 1st round pick, the club wouldn't have had the means to save enough via underslotting to sign him.

" The Mets, among the sport's more present-impaired teams, used the 11th pick to select Los Angeles high school first baseman / outfielder Dominic Smith after Stanford pitching ace Mark Appel was taken first overall by the Houston Astros.

"..Mets amateur scouting director Tommy Tanous hinted in a conference call that, although the Mets could use outfield help, Smith more likely eventually could supplant 2008 top draft choice Ike Davis, "

I'm with you on Campbell and Kirk. Both have been given plenty of opportunity and failed. Brad Emaus never saw Las Vegas. He came north from Florida after being a Rule V pick. While neither Monell nor Muno did anything in their VERY LIMITED trials up here, it's too soon to write them off. Muno got a whopping 24 ABs and Monell just 16. You have to play regularly to get into a groove. Nieuwenhuis has had 549 ABs -- essentially a full season's play -- to show what he can and can't do. Eric Campbell is over 300 ABs. Why such a short leash on the others?

Great, Hobie. I am not suggesting they put Smith in the outfield tomorrow, but at some point, get him out there for a stretch. Let's say Smith is ready mid-2016, but Duda is a mainstay. They need to have alternatives.

Monell is .374/.434/.555 in AAA this year. In the spring, he was .340/.377/.640.

I know AAA offensive stats are like having monopoly money and trying to spend it, and spring #s can be deceptive,but I agree with Reese- he got almost no chance. Sometimes that is all you get, but I would not mind him getting another real chance at some point..

None of these players are going to make the type of difference the Mets need at this point.Major league level ability or not.None of them are going to make more of the type of difference that the current roster needs compared to another.

The current Met roster needs Wright producing as he did years ago.It needed to improve in the Outfield more than what Cuddyer had to offer.

Alderson gambled Wright and D'Arnaud would stay healthy, Granderson would improve, and that Cuddyer would produce as he did a couple years ago.

@ Chris - not advocating a full time switch of Smith to OF, as I would hope (and expect that) he remains a full time 1B. Just don't want to see a case like Reynolds, where Smith plays ZERO minor league games in OF, Duda is still there at 1B, but the outfield has a need which Smith could have filled when his bat is ready.

So even 20 games in the outfield over the next year, just to give him a feel for playing it in a professional setting. They're doing it with Boyd.

Emaus did come from AAA Vegas when they were in Toronto as the rule V pick. He played in the PCL in Vegas and Colorado Springs.

You are right, some of the other guys had limited at bats. I think we can safely say that Muno is not a 3rd baseman. I might just be being pessimistic but unless I see them crush AA I don't ever believe their AAA numbers in Vegas. Gives me more hope for Hererra and Conforto.

Pretty sure that Duda has two years of Arb left after this one; he and Meija each ended up with 4 years of Arb, so he is not a FA until after 2017, so they have a little time left with him. Smith has a plus arm, but below average speed, so not sure he is OF candidate and his glove at 1B is supposed to be well above average. He has clearly had a breakout this year, but has much development left having just turned 20, so I think it make sense to pace his development and allow him to eat up Low A and get through a slump that is sure to come. Even if paced one level a year, he would enter the majors as a 22/23 year old and would slot in right after Duda become FA. If he moves faster and an extension cannot be reached with Duda, maybe Lucas would be moved during the 2017 season for prospects and have Smtih replace in the middle of 2017. aggressive, but not unreasonable.Anon Joe F

When given a chance to play, Muno showed speed and power. I will take your word for his defense as I have not seen him enough to draw a conclusion. My point is that for bench guys -- someone to tap on the shoulder when you need a stolen base or a long ball -- I'd like to try something new. I'm not advocating he start.

I am surprised they brought in Monell instead of Recker, though they could have chosen him since the reason for the short stay was due to a DL stint for d'Arnaud. It doesn't matter, though, as Plawecki will start and the .370 hitter will sit. Again, I'd like to see what the man could do if he got a chance. If he hit, for example, .270, then it might make the prospect of trading Plawecki more palatable.

He's shown you speed and power through the distorted prism lens that is AAA Vegas. He's shown me 2-24 (at least one of those being an infield hit) at the majors—which is the only place that matters. Sticking with Muno (on the bench or God forbid otherwise) would be complacent, ironically the very thing for which the Mets FO is oft- and justifiably criticized.

I feel like this has more to do with your disdain for Tejada (and his .271 BA, .345 OBP!) than your love of Muno. Am I close?